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Bank Security These Days

I know there are plenty of stories about stolen identities, bank accounts cleared out, or fraudulent credit card uses. These things all point to some sort of security breach, may it be on the victim’s part or the institution’s. To counter these troubling trends, banks especially have started to do more to ensure appropriate use of their services. But there gets to be a point where these security measures adversely affect how I can use those services.

So it’s fairly normal to have a password for online banking, a passcode for telephone banking and a pin number for ATM banking. Three different security features for three different methods of access is reasonable. However, within the past year, I’ve had to add 5 random questions to my online banking, which I may be asked to answer at random upon logging in with my password. For tele-banking, I must also be able to recite any number of letters from a secret word of my choosing. It seems like the ATM’s the only thing that’s been spared.

Add on the fact that I have a couple bank accounts and all of a sudden we’re talking about tens of security features I must be able to potentially authenticate. To be honest, I’m not sure how well I can remember all of them. It seems inevitable that I’m going to be locked out of my own account one of these days, when I just can’t remember one of the numerous questions I could be possibly asked.

Security? Sure I’m all for it, but this is getting a little ridiculous…

My bank account got closed the other week. Something about it being on the list of “possible hijacked accounts.” No such hijacking occurred. I still had to call up PC and then go to one of their damn useless pavilions and get a new card. Problem was that when I called I couldn’t remember my stupid phone password, and apparently my answer to the security question was “wrong.” How the hell could it be wrong? My mother only had 1 maiden name and I’m pretty sure I know how to spell it. In the end everything got fixed, but it was still really annoying. My credit cards have ATM passwords as well that were given to me, and I’ll be damned if I can actually remember them.